


Fourth Of July

by smol_bean_dean



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gay, M/M, Summer Camp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-01-27 23:51:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 13,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12593340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smol_bean_dean/pseuds/smol_bean_dean
Summary: Every year a two week long summer camp is held over the week before and the week of the fourth of July and every year the McClain kids go.Lance, one of the older McClain boys, has hated the camp since the first time he went, yet still he is forced to go with his siblings.Keith found himself being puled against his own will to go to the camp, Shiro, Keith's older brother, got a job as a councilor there.





	1. PROLOGUE

*Prologue*

"Mama, don't make me go to this camp again." Lance, one of the eldest McClain children, begged his mother who was busy helping the younger kids pack for their two-week trip. The McClain parents left to their hometown in Cuba each year around this time to meet with their parents, so the kids who were younger than eighteen went to a camp.

"Mijo, stop complaining, the camp isn't even that bad." His mom argued against him, "Your older sister loves it." 

"That's cause she gets to see her boyfriend, why is she even going this year? She's eighteen and Shiro is too, he won't be at the camp."

"Actually," His adopted sister, Allura, intruded in the conversation, "Shiro's going to be there as a counselor." Lance rolled his eyes.

"Great, now I'm going to have to watch my sister make out while I'm there too." Lance glared at the two women that were currently spending their time trying to talk some sense into him about the camp.

"Lance, he has a brother who will be going there too. He's your age, plus, I don't think you'll really want to spend two weeks in Cuba with our Abuelos do you?." His sister joined in.

"I didn't know Shiro had a brother." Their mom turned to face his Allura.

"Technically he's not his brother, he's fostered into their family." She replied, Lance took this time to walk into his room and shut the door, not wanting to hear about Shiro and his brother. Packing for the trip would be better in his opinion. Lance sighed, picking up his phone and dialing his best friend's number.

After a few rings Hunk picked up.

"Hey, Lance. How's talking your mom out of the camp going so far?" 

"That's why I called actually, I have to go. It's either that or stay with my Abuelos' from both sides for a full two weeks." Lance sat on his bed, feeling the familiar bouncing feeling as he did

"And your Abuelos are?" Hunk trailed on getting the translation of Lance's Spanish. Since Lance's family was originally from Cuba, Spanish was their main language, but over the years it became an equal mix of Spanish and English.

"My grandparents." Lance replied simply. 

"Right," Hunk replied, "that sucks though, Matt and Pidge are throwing a party at their place for the fourth, it would have been awesome if you could come."

"Ya, and worse, I have to go and likely see my sister and Shiro be all lovey-dovey together." Lance purposefully raised his voice.

"Lance," Allura shouted, her voice being slightly muffled by the door, "I can hear you."

"That was the goal!" Lance shouted, not knowing about Hunk who was wincing from the yelling that rang straight into his ear from the phone.  
"Ugh, I can't get any quiet in this house." Lance rubbed the bridge of his nose.  
"Anyways, I'm gonna have to go soon, I still haven't packed anything because I've been too interested in getting my mom to let me not go which didn't even work out."

"Okay," Hunk sighed, "See ya." Lance heard the beeping sound that the call was ended by Hunk.

While Lance was packing up his clothes, which mainly consisted of tank tops, shorts, and a couple pair of full-length jeans, a picture frame fell down from his desk, it was one that he still didn't know why he kept up there, for some reason though, he did.

It was a picture of him and his full family, they were all at the camp, including his parents. That was the only couple times that he could remember liking the camp was when his whole family was there, not just the few that weren't eighteen yet, it was all his siblings and his parents.

Lance gave a small smile at the memories of jumping off the large diving board and into the pool, splashing his Papa when he landed.  
He put the picture back onto the desk and finished packing up. He barely even realized how late it was by the time he was done.

All he thought was that tomorrow would be the start of the two weeks that he hated most out of the year and nothing could change that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish translations:
> 
> "Mijo" = "Son"  
> "Abuelos" = "Grandparents"


	2. ONE

"I can't believe that Mama is letting you make me go here. I mean I'm seventeen, you think she would let me stay home from this awful camp." Lance was sitting in the front seat of the van, they had to take the family van to be able to fit all the kids from their family that were going.

"Lance," Allura sighed taking one hand off the steering wheel and brushing her hair back before returning it to its place on the steering wheel, "it won't be as bad as you expect."

"Allura, this is the worst way to spend the fourth of July weeks, I could be at a party drinking and checking out the hot people there but no I have to go to a stupid camp." Lance ranted on and on about how terrible it would be.

"Lance, stop complaining." Allura had enough, now she was starting to get annoyed, "You never know, maybe you'll get surprised, and don't talk about how it will be so terrible, you're annoying me and our siblings will take after your bad attitude." Lance was shocked by her sudden change in attitude, but decided it would be best to listen to his sister.

Lance, being his moody self, even when he listened to his music for the rest of the ride he made obvious expressions and poses of annoyance so that Allura could see his displeased self.

"Allura," One of their youngest siblings, Joseph, cooed, "how much longer until we're there?"

"We're almost there, less that five minutes." She replied back, giving her small smile.

"Finalmente, ha pasado tanto tiempo." Lance whined, Lances family thought that the younger kids who didn't grow up in Cuba should learn English first to still do well in school, so they only knew basic Spanish and couldn't fully understand Lances whining.

"Deja de quejarte de todo, Lance." The two older McClains usually had their arguments in Spanish so that the kids wouldn't be able to chose sides, which in this case, Allura would lose.  
"Además, básicamente estamos allí de todos modos."

Allura was right, Lance could easily see the trees that surrounded the camp and the brown picket fence that surrounded those.

"Hey guys,"Lance turned to face his siblings, "look, there's the camp." The small kids all cheered happily.

"Lance, will you go swimming with me?" Nicola the six year old who sat right behind Lance asked.

"How about we all go swimming." Allura suggested, getting the cheers from the young kids once again.  
"Okay," She put the van into park as they reached the camp parking lot, "we'll go swimming then we will put our stuff into the cabins.

"I wonder which loser I'm rooming with this year?" Lance had an annoyed tone, every year he had to room with some random kid since there was enough of the little McClain's to fill an entire cabin and Allura and Shiro usually shared a cabin beside his siblings. 

Lance how ever, was always sharing a cabin with someone that he would only meet that night.

Lance, who was wearing his swim trunks as shorts, quickly left the van and went to the pool wanting to get away from his siblings quickly.

"Hey, Lance." He turned at the sound of the familiar voice seeing Shiro Takashi, also Allura's boyfriend. He was wearing his swimming shorts and his feet were dangling in the water, he started to stand up to go to Lance.

"Shiro." Lance smiled, going in for a quick hug. Him and Shiro were friends before him and Allura started dating, Pidge and Lance had a bet, Pidge was betting that Lance would never be able to set two people up so Lance challenged it and set up his sister. He won a week of free food for that one and he was proud of it.

"Allura's at the van helping our siblings." Lance motioned behind him to which Shiro nodded and walked in that direction.  
"Anyways, I'm going for a swim." Lance quickly pulled his shirt over his head, the years of being on the football team in his high school had paid off by giving Lance a faint yet noticeable six-pack.

Quickly, he jumped into the surprisingly warm water,only then realizing that he had almost landed on someone.

"Watch it!" A boy will black hair yelled at Lance, his wet hair was brushed back to get it off of his face. His eyes were a rare violet color that stood out on his oddly pale skin.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there." Lance crossed his arms over his chest before he decided to try one of his cheesy pickup lines, "I wish I did though." He winked.

"Are you flirting with me?" The boy retorted.

"I was trying. Should I try harder?" Lance smirked.

"Just leave me alone." The boy sighed and turned to continue to who he was talking to before.  
Deciding that he didn't want to deal with any sass right now, Lance moved more to the wall of the pool.

"Lance!" Joseph called making the Cuban boy turn around to face his little brother.

"Hey." Lance cooed, holding his arms out and waiting for Joseph to jump into the pool, expecting Lance to catch him which he always did.

Looking up, he saw Allura and Shiro who were now sitting beside each other with their ankles in the water.

"Let's pull Allura in." Joseph whispered into Lance's ear.

"I've taught you well." Lance smiled back. The two boys went under the water and swam over to their sisters feet, each grabbing one and pulling. A loud shriek came from Allura as she went into the water, the boys and Shiro were laughing with each other. Allura was just giving an evil glare at Lance who at this point really didn't care, he just thought it was funny.

After Allura was done being annoyed at Lance, they all continued to have a normal conversation "By the way, where's your brother?"Allura asked Shiro.

"He's here somewhere, he has a friend named Matt here, he's a councilor too." Shiro replied.

"Wait," Lance intruded, "Matt Holt?" 

"Ya, you know him?" Shiro asked.

"He's one of my best friends brothers." Lance nodded.

"Oh, Pidge right?" Lance nodded, "Ya, she's coming to the camp too-" Lance cut him off,

"She has a party on the fourth though." Needless to say, he was confused now.

"Ya, she's leaving with mat the day before the fourth so that they can hold the party. She's here somewhere though." Lance was gone by the time Shiro finished his sentence, he was looking for Pidge, until he felt a splash from behind and heard her voice.

"Hey Lance, I didn't know you came to this camp." Pidge was wearing a green bikini, her hair looked longer when it was pulled down by the water and it went a bit past her chin, and without her glasses Lance almost didn't recognize her.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to this camp?" Something caught Lance's attention though, the same boy from earlier was behind Pidge.  
"Wait, you know him?"

"Oh," Pidge replied after turning to make sure that he meant Keith, "ya. This is Keith, Keith this is Lance."

Keith kept his glare at Lance,  
"Keith is Shiro's brother."

"You're Shiro's brother?" Lance was too surprised to even be able to comprehend this.

"Ya, who are you?" Keith was bored.

"Your brother's dating my sister." Keith soon shared the same face as Lance. 

"You've gotta be kidding me." Keith ran his hand through his wet hair and brushed it back,

"You're the guy that I'm sharing a room with."

Lance started to realize that Allura and Shiro would have planned this, they would have set the two guys together to get them to know each other.

"Allura!" Lance yelled, walking over to his sister.

"You put me in the same room as Keith?" She nodded.

"I want you guys to get to know each other, so does Shrio."

"Well so far that isn't working well since the guy hates me." Lance rolled his eyes, despite his constant nagging that came for the next five minutes, Lance was still stuck sharing a room with Keith for the next two weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish Translations:
> 
> "Finalmente, ha pasado tanto tiempo." = "Finally, it's been so long."  
> "Deja de quejarte de todo, Lance." = "Stop complaining about everything, Lance."  
> "Además, básicamente estamos allí de todos modos." = Besides, we're basically there anyways"


	3. Chapter 3

To say Lance was annoyed was an understatement, he was beyond annoyed about having to share a room with Keith.

He sighed as he used his cabin key to unlock his door and walk in. When he saw Keith sitting on his suitcase with the beds still bare, everyone had to bring their own sleeping bag and pillow. The camp thought it would make it seem more like actual camping.

"I was going to let you pick which bunk you wanted." Keith said, not looking up from his phone.

"Oh, thanks." Lance was surprised by the sudden kindness, it was different than the Keith who got annoyed at Lance in the pool. Lance smiled a bit as he put his stuff on the bottom bunk, soon he started to take out his sleeping bag and placed it on the bed. 

"Thank God, I was hoping you'd pick the bottom, top bunk's always been my favourite." Keith had now put his phone into his back jeans pocket and was walking over to the bunks. He didn't want to step on Lances' things so he stood as close to the bottom bar of the bed and stood on the top of his toes to try to reach the top.

He heard Lance chuckle behind him and in Spanish mutter, "Eres tan corta." Keith looked down at Lance who was now sitting on his bottom bunk.

"Whatever you're saying, stop." Keith glared. Lance sighed and stood up, grabbing Keith's sleeping bag and pillow from him and placing them on the top. 

"Thanks." Keith sighed.

"So you're Shiro's brother, huh?" Lance tried to start a conversation, for once taking his sister's advice by trying to be nice to Keith.

"Ya. And you're Allura's sister?" Lance nodded, Keith by this time had decided to sit on the bottom bunk again.  
"I know this is going to sound like a stupid question, but what language were you speaking?" Keith asked.

"Well, right now I'm talking in English." Lance said with a smirk.

Keith rolled his eyes in annoyance, "I know that. I mean when I was trying to put the stuff on the bed."

"I was speaking Spanish." Lance replied, looking over at Keith who was now finding his fingernails particularity interesting.

"How'd you learn it?" Keith was genuinely in the conversation.

"I was born in Cuba. My family moved here a little under ten years ago." Lance explained to the black haired boy.

"What about you?" Lance asked, "Where are you from?"

"I don't want to talk about that." Keith sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose while his eyes were closed.  
Lace nodded and let out a breath of air he barely even knew he was holding in.

"Have you been at this camp before?" The brown-haired boy couldn't think of anything to ask so that was what came out of his mouth, a badly thought through version of a pick-up line. Keith raised an eyebrow but shook his head.

"No, Shiro just brought me along this year. Said that I needed to get out of the house." Keith sighed, "You've been here before?"

"Yup." Lance dragged the 'p' out as he nodded his head, "It was either this or go spend two weeks with my Abuelos in Cuba." He looked over and saw Keith looking somewhat confused by the one word of Spanish that Lance had said.  
"Abuelos means grandparents."

"I wouldn't pass up a trip to Cuba though, even if I had to spend time with family." Keith added onto Lance's statement.

"Trust me," Lance said with a chuckle, "if you had to stay with my family you would pass up a trip to anywhere with them." Keith decided to not try to argue Lance's point.

"Lance?" A voice called from out of the room. Lance walked over to the door, opening it to reveal a smaller little girl, her skin was tanned like Lances and her hair was the same colour.

"Hey Nicola, hey Jacob." Lance smiled and knelt down to the girl's height, "I thought you were still swimming with Allura and the others. The girl was wearing some velcro sandals and her one-piece bright pink bathing suit was still dripping.

"I wanted you to come." She smiled at her older brother.

"I already went to the pool today." Lance joked, poking at his sister's shoulder lightly.

"I'll tell you what," The little girl looked up again, "I'll go to the campfire tonight with all of you guys."

"Okay." She smiled and skipped away happily, the young boy still stayed in his spot.

"What's up, Jacob?" Lance asked.

"Nothing, I'm just bored at the pool." Jacob looked into the back of the room and saw Keith,

"Who's that?"

"That's Keith-" Lance was cut off by the younger boy.

"Your boyfriend." Jacob cooed, Keith laughed at Lance's new facial expression which earned him a glare from the older of the two McClain boys standing in the doorway.

"No, Jacob." Lance scolded, "Keith is not my boyfriend. We're just-" He couldn't think of the right word to use to describe it, luckily Keith could think of something that would fit the situation.

"We're acquaintances." Lance nodded.

"Ya sure." Lance rolled his eyes at his brother, "Anyways, you better be at the campfire tonight or else Nicola is not going to stop complaining tonight and I'm sharing a room with her."

"I promised. I always keep my promises." Lance was proud of that, he never broke promises to anyone. Jacob nodded and walked in the direction that Nicola left in.

"Those were your siblings?" Keith asked.

"Ya, I have three younger ones, Nicola and Jacob, and then one who is three years old and with my parents in Cuba; his name is Max, then Allura is my older sister." Lance nodded.

"I never had any siblings growing up, at least not until about two years ago when I was fostered into Shiro's family. I still go by my own last name though." Keith replied.

"What's your last name?" Lance asked him, he knew Shiro's last name was Shirogane and he just went by Shiro, but he never mentioned Keith or Keith's last name.

"Kogane." Keith responded plainly.

"You know, I don't think we got a good first impression of each other." Lance gave his small signature smirk, "Let's start over."

Keith nodded, "Hi, my name's Keith." He put out his right hand for Lance to shake.

Lance smiled and grabbed Keith's hand, "Lance McClain." 

"Nice to meet you, Lance." Keith gave a small smile which Lance returned with a smirk.

*

Lance was laying on his bottom bunk with his headphones in, Keith was doing the same but as well as having his headphones in, he was also reading.

"What time is it?" Lance asked, Keith, who could barely hear Lance took out one headphone.

"Huh?" Keith's tone was extremely uninterested as he kept reading his book. Lance sighed,

"What time is it?"

Keith looked at the black watch he had on his left wrist, "Uh, it's seven twenty-two." He replied before he put his eyes back to his book.

"Maldita sea!" Lance quickly sat up and tried to get out of his bottom bunk but ended up hitting his head against a wooden support beam that was holding Keith up.  
"Ay..." Lance rubbed his head, glaring at Keith who was having trouble containing his laughter from what he had just witnessed. 

"What's wrong?" Keith finally stopped his laughing.

"Cómo podría olvidar que?" The brown-haired boy was now frantically running around the cabin getting stuff ready.

"Lance!" Keith got Lance to stop running around and look at him,  
"What's wrong. And could you not say answered to things I ask in Spanish? It gets really confusing." Lance rolled his eyes.

"I forgot about the campfire, it started at seven." Lance explained to Keith who as making an understanding expression as he muttered a small 'Oh' to himself.

"Mi hermana va a estar tan enojada conmigo." Lance said loudly.

"Lance, Spanish." Keith jumped down from the top bunk.

"¡Cállate! Puedo hablar español si quiero." Keith didn't know what that meant but by the tone that Lance said it in, he was guessing that he almost didn't want to know.

"We'll go there and just say that we got busy." Lance stopped and nodded.

"Okay, but we have to go now." Lance said, Keith nodded and went to the door. Lance, who had finally stopped panicking, walked over to him and opened it, the old rusted doorknob let a squeak run through the cabin.

 

"What were you saying in Spanish by the way?" Keith asked while Lance closed the door.

"Uh... Don't worry about it." Lance replied before they left to the campfire pit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish translations
> 
> "Eres tan corta." = "You're so short."  
> "¡Maldita sea!" = "Dammit!"  
> "Ay..." = "Ow..."  
> "¿Cómo podría olvidar que?" = "How could I forget that?"  
> "¡Cállate! Puedo hablar español si quiero." = Shut up! I can speak Spanish if I want to."


	4. Chapter 4

Lance was laying in his bed, his mind wandering everywhere but sleep, his curiosity was keeping him up. Keith said that he didn't want to talk about where he was from but Lance did know that Keith was a foster kid, meaning his family life wasn't the best, maybe even wasn't safe.  
Curiosity was getting the best of him but the curiosity was only about Keith, Lance couldn't stand Keith when they were in the pool, even for a bit in the cabin but after that started talking his opinions had changed, he didn't mind him now.

Lance pulled the sheets on his bed up closer to him until they touched his chin in an attempt to get more warmth, even though it was mid-summer it was surprisingly cold this night. Next Lance was thinking about what his brother said when he teased and said 'Is he your boyfriend?', he couldn't help but think about what Keith thought.   
Lance was openly bisexual to his family and Jacob had used it as some of his jokes. Normally a joke about being bisexual wouldn't be bad, but this time something stuck in his head, he kept thinking about how Keith had laughed about it, was he homophobic?

"Keith?" Lance asked, only getting a small groan in reply.

"Keith?" Lance asked louder.

"What?" Keith muttered, his voice was slightly raspy from sleep.

"Are you awake?" Keith gave an annoyed chuckle at Lance's last question.

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?" His voice was filled with sarcasm to which Lance rolled his eyes. he couldn't get comfortable so he shuffled onto his left side which left him facing the wall, then he changed to his right side again. Each time he changed what side he was sleeping on it let a rusty squealing sound which was annoying Keith more each time.

"Can you quit that?" Keith snapped, turning his head to the open side of the bunk.

"What?" Lance sighed, "I can't get comfortable." 

"Well then get comfortable." Keith rested his head on his pillow and closed his eyes.

"But I can't." Lance sighed, rolling over and pushing his face into the pillow.

"Keith?" His voice was muffled, Keith sighed and pulled his covers over his head. His toes poked out of the bottom of the blankets making him curse and get the covers to cover them again, after ten minutes of this, Keith finally managed to fall asleep.

"Keith?" Lance sighed when there was no answer. He stood up and walked to the provided table that was in the room and pulled his sketchbook from his bag. He sat looking at the blank page he had opened, some markings from past failed drawings that he had drawn.  
He looked around for any source of inspiration but couldn't find any so he decided to let his mind wander and pick his inspiration for him.

He was barely paying attention to his hand moving across the paper yet it was still turning out better than all of his other drawings. When he finally realized what he was drawing, it was basically done. He had been drawing for an hour and a half without full realization.   
His drawing was one of a man with black hair, he was on a lawn chair by the pool but there was a smile on his face, his eyes were crinkled on the outside from laughing and he was looking to his right-hand side, he was looking and laughing at Shiro.

Lance, being flustered about the drawing that his imagination put on he quickly closed his sketchbook and looked out the window, the sun was coming out now which made a pink-orange glow in the room.

Lance, who had nothing better to do, decided to go for a morning swim to wake him up from his lack of sleep. Without waking up Keith Lance put on his swim trunks and a baggy hoodie, his hair was still slightly messy yet he found no point in brushing it since it was soon going to be wet anyway.

The walk was only a couple minutes but the brown-haired boy didn't care, he enjoyed the quiet anyway, it was a rarity in his house. The glow from the sun reflected off the pool leaving the boy to squint. Taking off his hoodie, Lance dove into the pool. The cold water left a cold tingling sensation on his body. Holding his breath, he went as deep as he could before the pulsing in his chest meaning he needed air, obeying his body, he went up for air.

"You're a morning swimmer, huh?" Lance jumped at the voice and turned around only to see Shiro sitting down on the deck with his feet hanging in the water.

"Ya, I am. I needed a break to think." Lance replied, brushing his hair back with his fingers.

"Keith's the same way." Shiro nodded, "He gets nightmares sometimes." 

"What are his nightmares about?" Lance decided that instead of wading in the water he would hang onto the ledge of the wall with his chest placed against the wall.

"I'm not all that sure if he'd want me to tell you." Shiro looked down at Lance, "He's the kind of person that only tells someone when he really trusts them." Lance sighed and nodded understandingly. 

"How are you swimming, it's freezing." Shiro shivered and rubbed his hands over his arms.

"It's not that bad." Lance shrugged, his body was getting used to the cold water and it was feeling rather neutral now.

"I'm freezing, I'm going to go back to my cabin, your sister's still sleeping." Lance nodded and floated on his back looking up at the sky, and seeing the slightly still dark sky with the clouds that emanated an orange glow from the still rising sun.  
He didn't know how long he floated for but it must have been a while since he heard new footsteps on the pavement that acted as the pool deck.

"Lance?" He heard Keith's voice. He opened his eyes and looked over to the side closest to the woods that the cabins all sat in.

"Oh, hey." Lance moved from his floating position so he was treading water and facing Keith.

"You're up early." Keith put his feet in the water and slipped himself into the water, he let out a little cry at how cold the water was that Lance found hilarious and laughed at.

"I couldn't sleep." Lanc shrugged and swam to the wall to hold on.

"Is that why you were up drawing?" Lance froze at Keith's question, he knew Lance was drawing so early in the morning.

"Oh," Lance nodded, "ya. I usually need time to think in the morning."

"Me too." Keith replied, he decided to stop thinking about how cold it was and dunking his head under the water, suddenly the temperature seemed to get warmer under the water until his head came back up, the air now feeling much colder than before.

Lance couldn't think about what to say to do, the sat in silence, both of them unsure of what to do. The sounds of the water moving filled the silence.  
Lance who was thinking about last night and his thoughts about Keith being homophobic, let his thoughts get the best of him.

"Are you homophobic?" Lance regretted the words as soon as they left his lips, Keith's facial expression changed to one of questioning.

"Uh, no." Keith shook his head, "Why?"

"Oh um," He thought of his options, "I'm bisexual and wanted to know if you're against it or not." Lance tried to act like it was nothing when in reality, he was freaking out. Lance's attempt at a calm expression must have failed since Keith's expression was a small bit more caring now.

"No I'm fine with it." The black-haired boy smirked before adding onto his statement, "I knew you were anyways."

"What?" Lance yelped, "No you didn't. There's no way." 

"You're not all the good at hiding it."

"Okay, then how did you know?" Lance swam over to the wall and pulled himself up so he was siting on it since his arms were starting to hurt from treading water for so long.

Keith shrugged while trying to think of the right word, "What do people call it when someone who's gay can tell when someone else is too?" 

"Uh, a gaydar?" Lance laughing using his fingers as quotations at the slang, Keith just nodded.  
"No, dude you have to be gay to have a gaydar." Lance sounded confident in his answer.

 

"Uh huh." Keith nodded his head, responding in an almost question like form.

"Oh, wait- you are?" Lance was taken back. Keith just nodded while swimming over to join lance who was sitting on the wall.

"Yup." Keith shrugged it off and popped the 'p' sound at the end.

"Oh." Lance looked anywhere but Keith, "I totally didn't see that coming. Soy tan estúpido." Lance pushing the palm of his hand against his forehead.

"I guess your gaydar's broken." Keith laughed.

"It is not." Lance responded.

"You couldn't even tell that I was gay." Keith rolled his eyes at the Cuban boy.

"Shut up." Lance was close to chuckling. He thought of something to get off the topic, "Let's race." This perked Keith's interest, "We'll do four lengths of the pool."

"Why?" Keith asked as he got back into the water making his body have to get used to the coldness again.

"You scared of a little challenge?" Lance smirked.

"No way." Keith glared, the two boys went to the left hand side of the pool.

"On three," Lance started, "One, two-"

"Three!" Keith finished as he pushed off the wall.

"That's cheating." Even though Keith's head was under the water and he couldn't hear Lance's cry's of unfairness, Lance still yelled it before he too pushed off the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish Translations
> 
> "Soy tan estúpido." = "i'm so stupid."


	5. Chapter four

It had been three days since Keith told Lance that he was gay. The first week of the two-week long camp was going faster than a camp week had ever gone in Lance's opinion.  
He spent basically every day with Keith, everything was going well until Lance started to have the dreadful feeling that he hadn't felt in a while. A crush.

He had been trying to convince himself that it was nothing but this crush wasn't like the others, in his hometown, he was the playboy of the school really, he constantly switched between girls and boys of the school. This time he was feeling nothing like before, this was sweaty palms, fast heartbeats, and stuttering over his words.

It was new to him really.

"Lance, are you even listening to me?" Allura was sitting with her arms crossed on a deckchair in front of the pool.

"Sorry. I was thinking." Lance shook his head to try to snap himself out of his daze.

"Uh huh, sure." Allura rolled her eyes. She looked at the boy again, "Why did you even want to talk to me?" 

"I have a weird question." Lance started, his sister just nodded for him to go on with his statement, "How do you know that you like someone? Like really like someone?" 

"Lance you've been with people before."She sighed.

"That wasn't like this, I was just with them to be with them. I guess I just never really liked them." He shrugged and finger-combed his hair.

"Well, that's a dick move." She sighed, "Anyways, why are you wanting to know, who is it?"

"Who it is isn't important. I just need you to answer my question." He was attempting to avoid using Keith's name at all.

"Well, then I can't help you if you won't tell me who it is." She was starting to stand up. In an attempt to get some answers Lance grabbed his sister's hand and pulled her back down into her sitting position.

"Just help me, this is the first time I've ever really liked someone." He sighed.

"You're not joking around about this, are you?" Lance shook his head in his answer.

"Okay, fine." Allura gave in,   
"When you like someone things will start to change a little when you're around them, hearing their name might give you chills and it will make you more excited. When they walk into a room you get happier, your palms might get sweaty, you're heart will race, you'll blush more, and you'll even want to be near them more. You'll feel like you're going crazy really, that's what liking someone does to you."

The brown-haired boy thought about this newly given advice, he had basically all that. He wouldn't be lying if he said that he didn't feel drawn to Keith when he first met him, the night in the cabin when he was drawing Keith is when small signs started showing up; the blushing, the sweaty palms, the instant rise in his attitude towards the camp.  
"Oh no. No, no I can't like him." Lance muttered into his hands when he rubbed his face with his new discovery.

"Goodluck with whoever you like." Allura stood up and walked over to the other side of the pool, her flip-flops making their signature noise.

"Allura," Lance called. She turned around and looked at him once more.  
"What should I do if I like someone."

"You're oblivious to relationships." She shook her head, "This is usually the part where someone gets asked out." She continued her path to the tennis courts where she had planned to meet up with Shiro.

"¿Qué voy a hacer?" Standing up, Lance, who barely got any sleep from the thought of Keith running through his mind, decided to catch up on his lack of sleep.  
To his surprise, Keith was already in the cabin reading a book at the desk.

Keith turned around to the door of the cabin giving a small smile when he saw Lance, "Hey." The Cuban boy gave a weak reply.  
"What's wrong?" Keith questioned, dog-earing his book page as a makeshift bookmark before setting the book down.

"I'm tired, I barely got any sleep last night." Lance sighed and sat down on his mattress in his bed.

"Why not?" Keith asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"I was up thinking about something." Lance sighed and laid down completely.

"About what?" Lance shrugged off Keith's question by responding with a simple it's nothing before he laid down and not long afterwards he was asleep.  
Keith decided that since Lance was already sleeping, he would go back reading his book as a way to pass his time.   
This continued on for about twenty minutes before Keith's attention got drawn to Lance who was whispering in his sleep.   
He tried not to listing for Lance's own privacy until he heard Lance mutter his name.

"Keith." Lance muttered once again, Keith could feel his cheeks getting warmer.  
This kept going on, each time it got a little clearer and louder with each time he said the name, the last one wasn't just said or muttered, Lance quietly moaned Keith's name.

"Lance," Keith tried to wake the sleeping boy up, "Lance, get up." He nudged his shoulder a little bit until the brunette woke up.

Lance groaned and shoved Keith's hand away before he tried to sleep again, only to give up and look at Keith, "Why'd you wake me up." He glared.

"You were saying my name in your sleep." Lance went a little bit red at Keith's statement but still argued it.

"So, I talk in my sleep sometimes. It's no big deal." Lance shrugged once again.

"No, Lance. You moaned my name, I'm guessing that's kinda a big deal." Keith added on, this time Lance's cheeks were bright red.

"What?" 

"You were just saying my name a couple times but then you moaned it." Keith replied more stubbornly this time.

"Ay, mierda." Lance sighed and rubbed his forehead out of stress.  
"Alright, well I guess I have to tell you now." Lance muttered quietly, Keith could barely hear it.

"Tell me what?" He questioned before deciding to sit down beside Lance.

"Um, I was trying to think of how to tell you this." Lance sighed again, "I uh, I like you, Keith."

"What do you mean?" Lance rolled his eyes.

"I mean I have a crush on you, Keith." Lance turned to look eye to eye with the other boy beside him, who was giving a small closed-mouth smile and was blushing, even though he tried to hide it.

"Oh." Keith was trying to hide his smile.

"Oh? That's all you have to say, 'oh'?" Lance rolled his eyes as he questioned him.

Keith, who was deciding to be bold, leaned forward an interrupt Lance, pressing their lips together, his eyes were squeezed closed so tightly it was almost starting to hurt him. Lance froze at first but soon kissed back. Keith relaxed too, he still kept his eyes closed but not so tightly, just a resting close.   
For Lance, even though it was a quick kiss, it still felt like more than when he had kissed anyone else, he had never felt the way he feels about Keith towards anyone else, he felt like a school girl with a crush again. The kiss ended when keith pulled away first.

"Oh." Lance replied sheepishly, his reddened cheeks matched the other boys.

"Ya. Oh." Keith smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish Translations
> 
> "¿Qué voy a hacer?" = "What am I going to do?"  
> "Ay, mierda." = "Oh, shit."


	6. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you start reading, I made a trailer for this fic.  
> Please watch it and tell me what you think about it, I made an edited it myself so some feedback would be nice. 
> 
> https://youtu.be/ALW4iPIr5OE
> 
> Thanks, carry on reading.

The events of last night seemed like a dream to Lance, an amazing dream. When he woke up and saw Keith next to him cuddled up into his chest a warm smile showed on his face. Keith's head was right beside the crook of Lance's neck leaving his breath to make the Cuban boy shiver whenever the other let out a breath.

Trying not to wake up Keith, Lance got out of the bottom buck, the wood making a creaking sound that made Lance worry about waking the other boy up. Luckily he stayed in his sleeping position. Lance dug out a baggy sweater with a worn out volleyball design on it from his last team before he left the cabin.

The air outside bit at his skin as soon as he walked out, his unbrushed hair was tossed around a little before the wind settled down and let his hair return to its normal, rather messy, position.

Walking to the dock on the other side of the camp, the side that he hadn't gone to since the last time his parents were at the camp with him.

On that side was a lake with a dock that reached out about twenty meters into the lake, on the far side of the dock there was a roof built under it. His papá and he would always go fishing early in the morning. Even though he rarely caught anything, they were always fond memories.

Lance walked to the far side of the dock to sit under the built on roof, his shoes made a hollow tapping sound on the wood as he walked. Sitting against a support post to hold the roof up, Lance looked out at the orange-tinted sunrise and got lost in thought.

He thought about almost everything, his family, his friends, this camp but mostly he thought about Keith, he thought about how no one had ever made Lance feel this way, no one made him want to be with them, no one made him happy like Keith did. No one made Lance go as crazy as he was right now.

"Lance?" He was called out of his thoughts, looking over to the owner of the voice, he saw Pidge.

"Hey, Katie." 

She sighed, "I told you not to call me that, I hate my name." She walked over to him, her sandals making the same hollow sound that his made earlier.

"Fine, fine, Pidge." Lance put sarcastic emphasis on the Pidge part of his sentence.  
"Why are you up so early?" He continued.

"I could ask the same to you." She sat down beside him.

"I asked you first." Lance gave the childish second-grade response.

"I wanted to go for a walk. Matt was snoring really loud and I had to leave the cabin." Lance starting laughing loudly when she gave the truth about her reason.

"Why are you out here?"

"Thinking." He shrugged and looked back to the view of the lake and the sunrise which was now higher in the sky but still low enough to leave its tinge of colour on the lake.

"About Keith?" He looked at the girl beside him in shock.

"How do you know that there's something between Keith and I?" He wore a surprised expression.

"First, I didn't know for sure but now I do." Lance glared at her, "Second, you go to Allura to talk, Keith's been coming to me, I knew that he liked you."

"Oh." Lance's reply was simple.  
The spent a couple minutes in silence, the only noise was the small waves when they hit the sand, the birds that would sing every morning, and the slight wind, everything was calm up until Lance interrupted the silence.

"I don't know what that boy is doing to me, Pidge." Lance put his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes a bit.  
"I've only known him for what, a week and he's already making me feel different." Lance sighed, "I don't get it." Pidge let out a giggle.

"Lance, that's what happens when you like someone." Pidge responded like it was nothing.

"I know, I just, I thought that when I would date all those people that I liked them, none of them made me feel like this. I feel like I'm going crazy." He turned his head to look at the girl beside him.

"Cause love is crazy, Lance." She laughed while she said it,  
"You're like a lovesick little girl."

"Am not." Lance defended, a smile on his face while he did.

"Yes, you are." She nodded, "Remember when I had a crush on that one girl in middle school." Lance laughed and nodded.  
"You're like I was then." 

"Oh my gosh," Lance laughed, "you're right." He threw his head back in laughter so it was resting against the post.

"Anyways, I gotta go back soon. Matt said he wanted to do something at least a little bit productive today so I'm gonna wake him up before he sleeps through the full day." Pidge stood up and began walking back into the area of the camp where the cabins were. Lance stayed on the dock while she left.

He closed his eyes and listened to everything around him and thought about what Pidge was saying before he knew it, or was even able to stop it, he started to fall asleep on the dock.

*

Keith woke up to an empty bed, the covers were rustled beside him and Lance's hoodie that was laying on the floor of the cabin was gone meaning that he had gone outside.

A bright blue flashing light on his phone went off in short bursts silently telling him that he had a text. Pressing the middle button on his phone he looked at the text.

Lance is at the docks. You're welcome. - Pidge

Know that he knew where Lance was he started to get out of the covers. copying Lance's idea he grabbed his hoodie before walking to the docks.

As promised, he could see someone at the end of the dock, their head was against the post. He smiled a little before walking on the wooden dock. As he started to get closer, he realized that Lance was asleep on the dock, once he was close enough he sat down in front of Lance.

The brown-haired boys' eyes were closed and his messy unbrushed hair was hanging in front of his eyes a little bit.

"Lance." Keith shook his shoulder but he didn't wake up. Shaking his head, he shook Lance's shoulder again.

"Déjame dormir." Lance responded, shoving Keith's hand away.

"Lance." Keith got a groan in response.  
Keith sighed before resorting to another option. His heartbeat gained speed in its pace and a light blush rose to his cheeks as he thought about it but he still went through with it.  
He moved closer to the Cuban boy until their noses almost touched and Keith could feel Lance's breath on his lips. Closing his eyes, he leaned in touching their lips together.  
He went to pull away but Lance, who was now apparently awake, moved his hand to the back of Keith's neck and pulled him in closer once again.  
The butterfly feeling that went off in Keith's stomach gave him a warm feeling. After a couple seconds, Lance moved his hand from Keith's neck letting him go.

"That was a good way to wake up." Lance smiled, his voice was deep from his second wake up of the morning.

"You were awake before I kissed you." Keith laughed.

"Ya, but you kissing me was a better way to fully wake me up than shaking my shoulder to wake me up." Lance smirked, Keith laughed and shook his head, he could feel his blush growing.

"You're an idiot you know that right?" Keith laughed.

"Yup." Lance nodded with a cheesy grin.  
"But I'm the idiot that you have a crush on." Keith rolled his eyes.

"Ya." He laughed before noticing that Lance's gaze was nervous as he was looking at Keith's hand. 

Keith, knowing what Lance was thinking, moved his hand so he was holding Lance's.  
The boys stayed like that for a while, talking about anything and everything they could, their hands still holding the others as the sun came up before they started their day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish translations:
> 
> "papá" = "Dad"  
> "Déjame dormir." = "Let me sleep."


	7. Chapter SIx

Lance was laying in a chair by the pool, this time he wasn't worried about how Keith was going to react when he told him he was bi, this time he wasn't worried about liking Keith. Those things, even though he hated to admit it, had solved themselves just like Allura said they would.

"Lance." He opened his eyes and looked down to the bottom of his chair where Nicola was standing, her hair was wet making it stick to her face and shoulders as drops of the water fell and landed on Lance's toes.

"Hey, Nicola." Lance smiled and looked at the bottom of the chair where his little sister was standing.

"Come in the pool with me, Lance." She was laughing and had a large smile on her face, one that Lance's weakness was. Lance nodded, getting up from his seat and going to the edge of the pool. He dipped his foot in the water, testing out the temperature before he felt two hands on his back pushing him in.  
Once he was resurfaced and his hair, which now looked much darker from the water, was partially hanging in front of his eyes he could see Keith smiling at him before he sat down in the chair that Lance had claimed before he was pushed in.

"Hey, no no no, that's my chair." Lance pointed to the one that the black-haired boy was now sitting in.

"Well since you're in the water now,"Keith smirked earning him a glare, "it doesn't look like you're using it."

"Tú gilipollas." Lance splashed some of the pool water over the ledge and onto Keith who squirmed at the sudden coldness.

"Hey, don't do that." Keith laughed.

"Then don't take my seat." Lance replied, turning to his sister and paying some water games with her. Keith smiled at Lance when he was playing with his sister and the now multiple other kids who decided to join them.

"Keith," He looked down to the ledge, Nikola was looking up at him, "come into the water."

"Ya, keith." A new voice said from beside him, he looked over to see his older brother and Allura, Shiro was smirking at him, "Go in the water." Shiro nudged his arm. 

"But it's warm out here." He knew his reply was weak.

"Aw, poor Keith." Lance was now joined in with the conversation. Keith sighed and walked towards the ledge before he jumped into, the cold hit him quickly but after a few seconds, his body started to get used to the new temperature.

He swam back to the surface of the water, "Happy?" He finger-combed his hair back as he asked the rhetorical question to Shiro who nodded.

Keith felt water splash his back and turned to Lance who was smirking at him. 

Keith splashed back and his grin grew into a smile, Lance's smirk did the same thing. The two boys continued as the kids joined in and soon the entire school was a splashing pit. Eventually, even Allura and Shiro came into the water and joined in too.

Lance was smiling wider than he could remember smiling, everything seemed to fit, the only thing wrong with this situation was that the camp ended in a week. He tried to push the thought away but it just went to the back of his mind, it was ready to come back at any time.

He turned back around to Keith who was splashing Allura. Lance smirked as he swam closer to Keith before dunking him under the water, while he did he moved his hands from Keith's shoulder and with his right hand grabbed Keith's left hand. Keith must have gotten the idea that this was Lance since he relaxed and stopped behind so tense.

Lance pulled at Keith's hand telling him to follow which he did, the two swam to the corner of the rather large pool away from everyone splashing each other.

The two, once there, resurfaced for air. Allura saw the two swim away but didn't call them she just smiled at Lance and turned back to everyone else.

"Well, that was a little bit crazy." Lance stated getting a laugh from Keith. His hair was hanging in front of his eyes and Lance was fighting at the urge to move it out of his eyes. 

"Ya, it was." Keith smiled and looked down a little, his hair only falling more now. Lance sighed and pushed they hair on Keith's face to the side, he could see Keith's growing blush when he did this.

"Eres mono." Lance smiled knowing that Keith didn't know what it meant.

"What?"

"Eres guapo." Lance kept going, he laughed as he did.

"English, Lance."

"Tus ojos son tan bonitos. Son como un bonito color morado." Lance smiled knowing that he was annoying Keith even though his words were nice.

"Lance. You know I don't understand Spanish."

"Creo que estoy cayendo para ti." Lance said that one in a softer tone, he smiled.

"I don't understand you."

"You don't need to." Lance smiled at the boy.

"You're a dork." Keith laughed, he just then realized that Lance was still holding his hand.

"I am not." Lance laughed.   
Keith decided he wanted to mess around and used his foot to make Lance fall into the water, he didn't expect that Lance would pull him in with him. Keith, while underwater, opened his eyes only to see Lance had done the same thing. 

Keith swam closer to him then slowly pressed their lips together. Lance smiled into the kiss, his hands went to the side of the Keiths face so he was cupping his cheeks. The sadly had to break and come up for air, literally.

"I'm the dork?" Lance laughed.

"Ya." Lance laughed at Keith's response.

"You just kissed me under water. I think you're the dork." Keith shook his head and laughed.

"Creo que estoy cayendo para ti." Lance repeated again. 

"What does that even mean?"

"Don't worry about it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish Translations
> 
> "Tú gilipollas." = "You asshole."  
> "Eres mono." = "You're cute."  
> "Eres guapo." = "You're handsom."  
> "Tus ojos son tan bonitos. Son como un bonito color morado." = "Your eyes are so pretty. They're like pretty purple color."  
> "Creo que estoy cayendo para ti." = "I think I'm falling for you."


	8. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith was nervous about how it would be with him liking Lance, he was nervous about the distance that would affect it if they did date after the camp ended.  
> Shiro told Keith that he might want to think about telling Lance about his rough history to be open with him. Keith took his brothers advice and told Lance about his past with his abusive father.   
> Keith said he wanted to be open with Lance in hopes of a relation ship and the two did get together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING  
> I want to say that there will mention of both physical and sexual abuse, it also mentions depression and suicidal tenancies. If that triggers you please don't read. I will leave a chapter summary so you can still get the main idea if you don't want to read it because it could possibly be triggering.

Keith was laying in his bed, Lance promised his brother that they would go fishing since his brother rarely got to do it with his dad so Lance said he would take him.

In the meantime, Keith was thinking. The first week of the camp had flown right over his head and he barely even noticed it. He had one week left with Lance, one week until they both went back to their hometowns. 

Sure they could make it work just like his brother and Allura had but Keith had seen the downsides of a long distance relationship, he had seen Shiro break down in stress, he had seen how excited Shiro was when he got to face time Allura.   
He knew how hard it would be to make a long distance relationship work, Lance for sure did too since he watched his sister do it every day.

Keith unplugged his phone from where it was plugged in to charge and texted Shiro's phone number,  
Hey, can you come to my cabin?

He shuffled his music before he set his phone back down, the song playing was 'All we do' by the band Oh Wonder. Keith laughed at the irony of the song and its lyrics, they seemed to match for some of his current feelings.  
His phone buzzed disrupting the song.  
Ya, why?  
He responded quickly,

I want to talk.

He thought that that would be enough to get Shiro here. He wanted to tell Shiro about him and Lance, even though they weren't officially dating or labelled as each other's boyfriends there was still something obvious between them. Keith didn't know if he could handle it on his own.

He only had to wait for a few minutes for there to be a knock at the door.

"Keith, it's me." Shiro called from the other side of the door. The black-haired boy got up from his bed and walked to the door.  
"Hey, what's wrong?" Shiro looked concerned. Keith led him to the bed for the two of them to sit down.

"I like Lance." Keith said rather calmly.

"Ya, I know." Shiro responded with a laugh.

"How? I never told you-"

"It's kinda obvious. I'm happy for you though." Shiro added on to his previous statement.

Keith shook his head with a scoff, "The only thing is neither of us has asked the other one out but we've kissed a couple times." He could feel his palms start to get sweaty from his nerves.

"Well then ask him out. You've kissed so obviously he likes you too."

"Well ya I know that." Keith laughed at his brother, "The thing is we only have a week left of camp. If we do date I won't be able to see him often. You and Allura don't get to see each other often." 

"When Allura and I don't see each other we text, skype and facetime as much as we can. Do that then." Shiro shrugged.

"I see how sad you get when you can't see her though."

"Ya I get sad when I can't see her, that part of a distance relationship sucks, that part of any relationship sucks." 

"I'm just not sure about it though." Keith buried his head in his hands, "You know that I have issues with trust and I'm just scared that I'll mess something up with Lance if we do have a distance relationship. I've had trust issues ever since-" Keith paused.

"Ever since your Dad." Shiro put his hand on Keith's back, "I get it. Have you told Lance about him yet?" Keith shook his head in his response.

"Maybe it would help if you'd do that. The more you know about each other the easier it will be to work something out." Keith knew that Shiro was right yet he still didn't want to admit it, he wasn't sure if he was ready to tell Lance about his past.

"I'm not sure, Shiro." Keith looked over at Shiro, "I'm scared of telling him. What if he rejects me because of that." 

"Keith," The boy looked up at his brother, "He won't reject you because of that."

"How do you know?"

"Keith, Lance is a nice kid. He wouldn't do that." Shiro smirked a bit, "Ask him for yourself." Keith turned only to see Lance resting his shoulder on the door frame, his expression was a relatively happy one. He was holding his fishing gear including his rod and his tackle box.

"How much did you hear?" Keith rubbed his hands together nervously, Shiro was leaving the room.

"Only the end." Lance set his stuff down and sat beside Keith, he reached out and rested his hand on top of the other boy's.   
"I don't know what happened that you're scared to tell me about and I get it if you're not ready to tell me." He interlocked their fingers, "You can tell me when you're ready but just know that I wouldn't stop liking you." He smiled.  
A weight felt like it had been lifted off Keith's shoulders, he let out a breath that he didn't even know he was holding and his shoulders, which were stiff and unforgiving, were now more relaxed.

 

"Okay." He smiled, Lance didn't say anything to prompt Keith, the two stayed silent until Keith broke it,   
"I may not be able to tell all of this, I haven't ever told the full story myself." Keith looked down and sighed, "Like my mouth physically won't form the right words for this." 

 

"It's okay, if you don't want to tell you don't have to." Lance was relaxing him.

"No, I want to tell you."

"Okay," Lance whispered, his voice was weak, "then you don't need to tell the full thing, if it is hard for you to say just stop and say you can't keep going." Keith smiled at Lance's reassuring on the matter that he didn't even know what it was yet.

"When I was a kid I lived with my Dad. My mom died in childbirth." Keith started, his breath was shallow and his words were almost less than whispers.  
"My Dad would do things to me, when I was a kid I didn't know what he was doing. He told me it was our secret." He had a tear running down his cheek now.  
"When I got older, maybe to the age of twelve I started to realize that what he was doing to me was wrong and I told him that I wanted him to stop." He choked out a sob, Lance tightened his grip on the boys hand.

"Keith-"

"Lance, I want to tell you. I want you to know." Keith used his free hand to wipe away some tears,  
"When I told my Dad to stop he got worse. He started to hurt me physically any time that I said no to him. I fell into depression and I-" Lance froze when he realized what was coming  
"I tried to overdose." Keith didn't try to wipe away his tears that were falling now.  
"That's when it got really bad, it was only a year and a half ago. He found out that I tried to kill my self and-" Keith let out a sob, "He-" He almost thought he wouldn't be able to finish, "Lance, he raped me." 

 

Lance's jaw dropped, he now had a few tears running down his cheeks at the pain that Keith went through. Quickly he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and pulled him in for a tight hug, he could feel Keith shaking from his crying.   
Keith pulled away to finish his story.

 

"The next day I knew that I needed to get help. I snuck out of my house and went to the police station. I told them everything." Keith sighed, "I was put into foster care and not long after Shiro's family took me in."

"Keith-" Lance didn't know what to say, "I am so sorry that any of that happened to you." His voice cracked from his tears and the lump in his throat.

"I've gotten better in the last year with Shiro's help. I haven't told anyone that story." Lance let go of Keith's hand and wiped away keith's tears with the pads of his thumbs.

"You're so brave, Keith. You're so brave, especially since you made it through that." Lance tried to give a small smile.

"I wanted to tell you everything. I wanted you to know." Keith replied, "I wanted to be open with you."

"I'm glad that you trust me enough to tell me that." Lance smiled and let his hand return to the other boy's.

"I wanted to tell you because I wanted to ask you if-" Keith paused and took a breath which was still shaking from him revealing his past, "I wanted to ask you if you'll be my boyfriend."

"Of course I will."


	9. Eight

Since yesterday when Keith had asked Lance to be his boyfriend, everything seemed to be going perfectly, that was until Keith realized that they now only had, including today, six days left together and this day was already half done. Thought about how things would work out unfolded in the teen's mind, each always going to the worst conclusion instead of the better.

To anyone else, six days may seem long, but to Keith who was already worried enough about having a long distance relationship, it seemed short, every hour seemed to pass quickly and feel like seconds and each day felt like an hour.

"Keith?" The black-haired boy turned his head. Allura was standing beside him and was the owner of the voice that he had just heard.

"I just wanted to say that I'm happy for you and Lance. He told me this morning. He seems really happy about it too." Keith smiled and could feel his cheeks growing a blush, "I haven't seen him this happy in a long time." The two both looked out to the pool where Lance was playing around with Nikola and Jacob.

Keith looked back to Allura, "Thanks. I'm happy too." He smiled, "I'm just worried about how we're going to handle being in a distance relationship. I know you and Shiro can do it but I'm not sure about how I will be. I've never been the best with distance." Keith rubbed his hands together nervously.

"I think it will work out. Plus now that we're both dating each other's siblings we'll have all the more reason to visit each other's families more. It's only about what, four or five hours." She gave a small laugh to which Keith laughed along too.

"Hey. Can I ask you how to say something in Spanish?" Keith was sheepish about his question.

Allura nodded.  
"How do I say I like you a lot in Spanish?" Allura smiled a bit.

"Me gustas mucho." Allura responded.

"Me gustas mucho." Keith repeated in a hushed voice.

"Sí, muy bueno." Keith gave the older girl a weird look.

"I only know that you said sí. Nothing else." Allura gave a laugh towards Keith's comment.

"You'll be good for Lance. Now go, he's probably waiting for you to get in the water with him." She nudged his arm before she walked over to her former spot by her lawn chair. Shiro was sitting and watching too, today was one of his work days so he was working as a councillor until five o'clock, then he was like a guest at the camp.

Keith, who listened to Allura about getting into the water, looked at Lance once more before he got in. Lance was playing around with Nikola and Jacob, the three of them were splashing each other until Jacob went behind Lance and dunked him into the water. Keith smiled and decided to join in on the madness.

The water was cold at first but he quickly got used to it. He started to swim over to his boyfriend, hoping to surprise him but Nikola made his presence obvious when she yelled his name and called him over to all of them.

"Hey, Nikola." Keith smiled.

"Hi, Keith." She smiled, "Lance was talking about you today." She pointed to the Cuban boy who's face was now reddening at a rapid rate.

"Oh, really." Keith smirked at Lance then returned his focus back to Nikola.

"Nikola-" he tried to scold but the girl just continued to talk over his voice.

"Ya, he was saying that you were really cute and that he really liked you and-" Lance put his hand over his sister's mouth and muted her now muffled voice.

"No need to finish that sentence, thank you, Nikola." He kept his hand over his sister's mouth until her muffled voice stopped talking and she was now glaring at her brother.

"But I think I want to hear the rest of this too, Lance." Keith knew he was pulling strings with Lance but Keith found it rather fun to bug the younger boy.

Lance threw a glare in Keith's direction, "I think you can live without hearing the ending, Keith." Lance took his hand away from his sister's mouth but not before speaking Spanish to her.

"No hablas. ¿De acuerdo?" 

She replied in a muffled voice, "De acuerdo." Lance took his hand away from his sister's lips with a glare to make her keep her promise.

"Anyways-" Lance was cut off.

"He think's you're super hot." Nikola yelled quoting Lance's words.

Keith could feel his blush growing as Lance quickly started scolding his sister.  
"¡He dicho no hablas!" Lance continued to scold his sister.

"Me-" Keith went to think about his sentence and how he could phrase it properly without messing up the pronunciation, "Me gustas." Keith froze, "Mucho." His last addition to the sentence came out like a question.  
Lance looked up with a small shy smile.

"You're learning Spanish?"

Keith shook his head, "How do you say 'no' in Spanish?" Lance laughed and rubbed his forehead.

"Keith," Lance sighed, "It's the same." Keith's mouth made an 'O' shape and he looked down shyly.

"No, I'm not learning Spanish. Allura told me how to say that." Keith smiled a little bit.

"I like it. You should speak Spanish more often." Lance gave a small chuckle, "I like it." Lance gave a small smirk.  
Keith shoved Lance's arm with a laugh, his blush, which had felt like it never went away, came back.

"Lance, we have less than a week left of this camp."

"Keith, we don't have to think about that, not right now." Lance knew about their timeline too, he knew about the small section of time that they still had together but he wanted to spend every second he had being happy about being with Keith, not having to think about how little time they had left.

"We have to think about that, Lance." Lance smiled and reached for his boyfriend's hand.

"We will but right now I want to spend my time with you." Lance smiled at the black-haired boy, "Te amo." His voice was calm an collected. Even though he knew he meant it, he wasn't ready to say it in English yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish Translations:
> 
> "Me gustas mucho." = "I like you a lot."  
> "Sí, muy bueno." = "Yes, very good."  
> "No hablas. ¿De acuerdo?" = "No speaking, okay?"  
> "De acuerdo." = "Okay."  
> "¡He dicho no hablas!" = "I said no speaking!"  
> "Te amo." = "I love you."


	10. NINE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sadly this fanfiction will only have two chapters left including this one.  
> This is also a shorter chapter.

Keith's head was resting on Lance's chest, one of his ears was pressed up against him allowing Keith to hear Lance's steady heartbeat. His other ear had the left earbud of Lance's headphones, he wasn't sure what song was playing but to him, it didn't matter.   
All that mattered to him was Lance.

 

"Hey, Lance." Hey knew they both hated when this subject was brought up but he also knew that they needed to talk about it or else it would hit them before they could get to it.  
Lance looked down towards Keith, he had a small smile on his face.  
"We have tomorrow. That's it."

Tomorrow was the fourth of July, tomorrow was the last day the couple had together before they both had to go their separate ways. Even though they both rarely talked about it, it was on both of their minds. It was the day that was going to completely change their relationships.

 

"Keith-" Lance was cut off.

"Don't say We'll talk about it later. We have to talk about it now before we don't have a chance to." 

"Okay," Lance sighed, "you're right. So what do you want to do about it? We both knew this was coming sometime." Keith sighed and sat up, the earbud falling out of his ear when he did.

"Do you think we'll make it? You know after we leave the camp?" His voice was shaking as he spoke.

Lance nodded his head, "Ya I think we will." He sat up too and took the earbud out of his ear when he gave a genuine smile to the other boy in front of him.

"I'm just scared, Lance." Keith rested his head on Lance's shoulder, "I know I shouldn't be but I am. Everyone close to me has left me, besides Shiro. I'm scared of that happening again." He took a breath in before he continued, "I'm scared of losing you." Lance moved his hand so he was holding the other boys.

"You don't need to be scared of that." Lance tightened his grip and intertwined their fingers together. "I'm not going to leave you, I'm not planning on it either."  
Keith smiled, his stress level felt like it was going down when his worries were answered.

"I'm not either." Keith hesitated, wondering if he should let his thoughts be heard in a verbal way, he had them now, everything seemed so rushed in their relationship. They were together for two weeks and yet in those two weeks, Keith had found a friend, gotten closer to his brother, and gotten into a relationship.  
Now, after only two weeks, he had fallen in love.

"Te amo, Keith." Keith had heard those words before, Lance said them at random moments yet he never knew what they meant.

"Lance?" Lance hummed in response, "What does that even mean?" He could feel Lance get tense.

"Um, te amo means-" Lance cut himself off and took a sharp breath in, "Te amo means I love you." Keith smiled and turned so he was facing Lance.

"Te amo too." He smiled at the brown-haired boy whose cheeks were now bright red. Keith was sure his cheeks matched the other boy's but he didn't care, he felt infinite right now, everything seemed to fall into place, everything out his past seemed like it was for a reason.  
This was that reason. The way that he felt now was what everything was building up to.

 

"I love you so much, Keith." Lance reached his arm out so he was cupping Keith's right cheek. "I've ever felt this way about anyone before." Lance moved so he could kiss Keith, their lips quickly moulded into each other without them having to think about it.

It started out as innocent and sweet, a kiss that said I love you when they didn't have to use words to but it quickly moved into more.  
Keith, who had suddenly gained confidence, repositioned himself so he was straddling Lance's legs, his hands went to the back of Lance's neck and he let his hands explore Lance's hair when they wanted to.  
Lance's hands were on Keith's hips pulling the other boy closer until there was no possible way for them to be closer. His left hand slid under the material of Keith's shirt and snaking up his back on an alternate path. Lance slowly lifted his hands which brought the material of Keith's shirt with them making the boys have to break the kiss for a couple seconds.

 

"Lance." Keith, even though he was the one who said it, wasn't sure if it was a moan of pleasure or a small statement. Lance pulled back, his lips were a brighter pink colour from the kiss.  
"I want this but we have to think about if we're even ready for it or if we're going to regret it after." Keith was panting slightly.

"Do you think you'll regret it?" Lance asked to which Keith simply shook his head as his answer to the other boy.  
"Me neither." Lance smiled.


	11. TEN

This was it, the last day, the last day Keith would get to spend with Lance face to face and not over a computer or phone screen, it was the last day that he'd be able to hear his voice normally and not over a phone. It was the last day he'd be able to play with Lance's hair while Lance said Spanish nonsense to him.

It was the Fourth Of July.

Hopefully, the two boys would be able to see each other before the next camp time, if the even still attended the camp that is. The two boys, along with Shiro and Allura, decided that they would meet each other over the holidays for sure. For the two boys, that was too far, it was at least five months away.

In the morning when the two boys woke up they didn't talk as much as they normally did, both of them knew what would be coming at the end of the day, both of them knew how it would turn out and what it would mean. 

They decided, without voicing it to each other, that it could possibly serve as the best way to deal with it, they both needed to come to terms with the fact that over the course of the past two weeks, they knew it would be coming. The thing is, neither of them could have expected that it would be as hard as this. This was torture worse than any other conceivable kind.

Other forms of it affect you physically and over time mentally, it's understandable how someone could believe that this would be worse, but once they see what this does they'll take back their argument.

This was taking someone who you've grown to trust and even get as far as to love, someone who can possibly act as your other half, your best friend and your family and then they were ripped away from you in an instant. Its pain can be equal with the worse kind of torture and so much more.

Keith knew that Lance was hurting just as bad as he was but he'd never been good at goodbyes. Even though they didn't have to leave until tonight after the fireworks tonight, he knew it was coming and that scared him more than anything.

"Hey, Lance." He still looked down at his bags which were reaching their brim of packing.  
"Why don't we do something to," He paused, the conversations weren't awkward, it was just long overdue, "take our minds off this?"

It was five o'clock already, fireworks started at six thirty, they had less than an hour and a half together now.

"Uh," Lance paused, his suitcase was full, he'd just been using it as a distraction for his thoughts, "ya sure." The two decided on going for a walk around the camp before they ended up at the dock where Lance would go fishing with his dad.

"So," Keith tried to break the awkward silence, "are we going to talk about it? We both know what's coming." He moved his hand so that he was holding Lance's.

"I mean, we have to at some point don't we." Lance sighed, his voice was quiet and low. "I'm just worried, I'm going to miss you."

"Me too but if Allura and Shiro can make this work than we can too, right." Keith smiled at his boyfriend who was currently looking down at the water, his shoes were off and his feet were hanging in the water.

"Ya, it just won't be the same without you with me all the time." Lance replied he laced his fingers together with his boyfriend's.  
Keith rested his head against Lance's shoulder as he went into thought.

"I love you, Lance. We'll figure this out." Keith's voice was weak, he wasn't sure how this was going to work out either, fear was in him all day, each time the thought of having to leave Lance was brought up Keith didn't know how to handle it.

"I love you too, Keith." Lance gave a reassuring squeeze to his boyfriend's hand.  
The two sat and talked about everything, they were off of the subject about having to leave each other and onto the subject of everything else. Everything that could be talked about was.

They barely even realized how long they were talking, until they heard the councillors calling for fireworks.

Keith felt his heart drop down in his chest.

"Well, I guess we should go then. We should," He sighed, "we should go watch them." Lance stood up, he used the post beside the dock to help him up.  
Keith sighed, he stayed on the dock until Lance set his hand on Keith's shoulder before telling him that he needed to get up.  
"C'mon, Keith. We both knew this was coming."

Keith sighed as he stood, "I just didn't think it would be this hard." there was a lump forming in his throat as he was talking.

Lance's hand found Keith's and intertwined the duos fingers, "Me neither." The two walked to the fireworks, they were taking place not far from the pool, the camp did this each year. They thought that if people could still swim in the pool while the fireworks are going that it would be more exciting.

"Hey, guys." Shiro walked up to the two boys, a small understanding expression showed on his face as he looked to his younger brother, "We were looking for you two." 

"Lance." Lance looked over at the voice only to see Pidge, "Dude, I haven't seen you in a bit." She smiled and walked over to the two.

"Hey, Katie." Keith smiled at the girl walking towards them, she didn't argue the name like she normally would.  
The conversations in the camp abruptly ended when the first sound of fireworks erupted into the air.  
Lance's grip on Keith's hand tightened slightly.

Keith found that by the middle of the firework show, he wasn't even looking at the sky anymore, he was looking at Lance. As each of the fireworks went off the colours illuminated the features on Lance's face.  
The red shone a pale but vibrant light onto his tanned skin, each time it seemed to bring out the blue in his eyes more.  
The green and blue made his lips look more plump and soft with each glow, each time the enchanting effect that it had on Keith grew.

The rare golden colour of the fireworks was Keith's favourite though.

Each time when it went off Lance's beauty seemed to be magnified, the gold showed off his tanned skin in every direction that you looked at it, the blue in his eyes was more magnificent than ever. The few solo curls that hid in his hair were brought out in the best way.

The gold made Keith remember the first time he saw the boy he ran into in the pool. The gold made Keith remember the good times he'd have more than the bad. The gold made him feel at home.

It made him remember why loved the boy that he would have to leave on the Fourth of July.

\---

Thank you for reading this story and thank you for your continuous support.  
Sadly this will be the end of the book but it has been an amazing experience for me to write.


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